Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Jon Henley

War in Ukraine: what we know on day nine of the Russian invasion

  • Russian troops have seized Europe’s largest nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia after a fire sparked by heavy shelling, Ukrainian authorities said. No changes in radiation had been recorded but any loss of ability to cool nuclear fuel would lead to “significant radioactive emissions” that could “outgrow all previous nuclear power plant accidents”, they said.

  • The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, offered to travel to Ukraine to facilitate talks with Russia aimed at guaranteeing the safety of nuclear plants during the conflict. The situation “continues to be extremely tense and challenging,” he said.

  • Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg has warned the days to come are “likely to be worse”, calling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “the worst military aggression in Europe for decades”. But he stressed Nato was a “defensive alliance” and not seeking a war with Russia.

  • Stoltenberg said foreign ministers discussed a “no-fly zone” over Ukraine but agreed that Nato planes should not operate over Ukrainian airspace. He also said Nato had evidence Russia was using cluster bombs.

  • In a call with Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin dismissed as “propaganda fakes” reports of missile strikes on large cities. He said Russia was open to dialogue but only if its demands – the neutral, non-nuclear status of Ukraine, its “denazification”, recognition of Crimea as Russian and the “sovereignty” of separatist territories in eastern Ukraine – were met.

  • Putin, also warned Russia’s neighbours “not to escalate the situation” by imposing more restrictions on his country, adding: “There are no bad intentions towards our neighbours … We fulfil all our obligations and will continue to fulfil them.”

  • Russian forces intensified their bombardment of cities in eastern and southern Ukraine after taking control of Kherson on Thursday, causing devastating damage. Mariupol remains encircled, Russian soldiers entered Mykolayiv, and Kharkiv, the country’s secojnd city, was again heavily shelled.

  • US secretary of state Anthony Blinken said Washington was “committed to doing everything we can to make this stop”, adding that the west was “faced together with what is President Putin’s war of choice: unprovoked, unjustified, and a war that is having horrific, horrific consequences for real people.”

  • More than 1.2m people have fled Ukraine into neighbouring countries since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on 24 February, the UN said, including about half a million children.

  • The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, appealed directly to Russians to protest over the seizure of nuclear power infrastructure by Russian troops. “Russian people, I want to appeal to you: how is this possible?” he said. “After all, we fought together in 1986 against the Chernobyl catastrophe.”

  • Zelenskiy earlier accused Russia of “nuclear terror”, as British PM Boris Johnson said Putin’s forces were “reckless”. US president Joe Biden and Canada’s Justin Trudeau also condemned Russia for shelling the plant.

  • Russia’s defence ministry blamed the attack on the nuclear plant on Ukrainian saboteurs, calling it a “monstrous provocation”.

  • Ukraine and Russia agreed to try to create humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians in a second round of talks on Thursday, but with no plans for how they might be implemented. A third round is set to take place next week.

  • Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russians to rally around their president and said that what happened next would depend on Kyiv’s stance in talks, adding that Russia had “clearly conveyed to the Ukrainian side our vision of solving this problem”.

  • The UN Human Rights Council overwhelmingly voted to create a top-level investigation into violations committed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with 32 members of the 47-seat council in favour and only Russia and Eritrea voting against.

  • Russia’s parliament passed a law imposing a jail term of up to 15 years for spreading intentionally “fake” information about the armed forces.

  • Russia admitted to “limiting” access to news websites including the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the independent Russian site Meduza and Germany’s Deutsche Welle, with Facebook also blocked.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.